The child is not eating and is crying continuously. Then the mother took the mobile and gave it to him. Listening to 'Baby Shark Du Du Du Du...' the child started eating happily. You must have seen such scenes happening with children around you. Tired of household chores or mothers handling responsibilities both at home and outside, adopted this easy way to handle children. But gradually these children are leaving the hands of their parents and holding the hands of the mobile. Now the situation is such that this addiction to social media and mobile is proving to be a 'digital epidemic' for children. Cannot blame only social media

At Rising Bharat Summit, child psychiatrist Dr. Amit Sen and founder of Curious Parent, Harpreet Singh Grover spoke openly on this subject. Child psychiatrist Dr. Amit Sen says, 'It is true that in the last few years, there has been a continuous increase in things like lack of focus in children, their mental health problems, depression, anxiety. Social media and the digital world have a hand in all this, there is no doubt about it. Given this increasing problem, it is not right to blame all the social media. Because we will have to understand who gave them the mobile. We have to understand what is our role in their life as adults?'

Look at your child's world.

Dr. Sen further talks about this increasing problem among children and says, 'Children are not influenced only by their parents. The child learns from his school, his friends, his surroundings and everything. In such a situation, this increasing problem among children cannot be seen by focusing on just one thing. We have to see and understand this whole world that is being created around children.

Do not let 'social media' become the source of happiness

Curious Parent founder, Harpreet Singh Grover says, 'Actually social media is making our children consumers. It is teaching children that happiness comes from external things. We recently went to the beach and I saw three teenage girls there. We were there for 3 hours and so were those girls. But in these three hours, these girls did not go into the water even once. They just kept clicking photos there. There is no need to judge anyone here, but we have to teach our children that happiness lies in experiencing it, not in telling it. Validation is the biggest problem on social media.'

Fatherhood is also important along with motherhood.
Harpreet Singh Grover says, 'I think we have to keep children up to 13 years away from social media. We have to limit the screen time of children, we have to tell them that there should be no 'digital privacy' at this age. We have to keep in mind that just as your child is meeting the world through the internet, the world is also reaching your child. In such a situation, you have to pay attention to their digital life. At the same time, Dr. Amit Sen says that we have to understand that the responsibility of parenting children, keeping them away from social media is not only of mothers. Especially in the era when women are also a part of the workforce. In this era, we have to talk about fatherhood. To protect children from this digital epidemic, both parents will have to work together.

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